The employee was dismissed for disciplinary reasons by
registered letter which was never picked up and thus remained in
deposit at the post office.
According to Italian labour law, the dismissal (to be qualified
under the category of unilateral receptive act) is effective from
the date the employee is acknowledged of the termination.
In the first two instances of judgment, the plaintiff's
request of declaration of the unlawfulness of the termination had
been rejected, since the time limit for the employee's
challenge of the dismissal expired.
The Italian Supreme Court, with decision no. 15397 of 31 May
2023, confirmed the previous judgments and provided for some
interesting clarifications on the matter regarding the legal
presumption of knowledge of termination and hence the effectiveness
of the dismissal.
